It's a good day for fans of open-source software. The Document
Foundation is releasing LibreOffice
5.1 for Windows, Linux, and Mac. On tap are reorganized menus,
integrated support for remote servers like Microsoft
SharePoint and Google Drive, improved compatibility with
Microsoft Office documents, and too many smaller improvements to
count.

LibreOffice 101

LibreOffice is the product of more than 1,000 developers, most of
whom are volunteers, and has an estimated 100 million users
worldwide. Born in 2010 as a fork of OpenOffice, LibreOffice has
taken the lead and left its progenitor in
the dust. In keeping with the Document Foundation's time-based
release schedule, this latest release comes six months after
LibreOffice
5.0—and will be followed by another release in six months'
time.

Make no mistake: If you want an open-source office suite,
LibreOffice is the one to use. Heck, if you just want a desktop
office suite that's free to use, LibreOffice is the best option.
That's why it's included with most Linux distributions by
default. But it's available for Windows and Mac, too.

Reorganized menus

After spending the LibreOffice
3.x series cleaning up the code, and the 4.x
series rearchitecting it, LibreOffice's developers are using
the 5.x series to focus on the user interface.

The menus have been reorganized in Writer, Calc, and
Impress—LibreOffice's word processor, spreadsheet, and
presentation program, respectively. The new menus are designed to
provide faster access to the most-used features. Writer gained a
"Styles" menu, Calc gained a "Sheet" menu, and Impress gained
a "Slide" menu.

The sidebars also got some attention, with the addition of a new
Chart sidebar that allows quicker access to chart-editing options.
While menus and sidebars don't sound the most exciting things, a
streamlined interface is the kind of unexciting feature that will
save many people time.